From its humble beginnings as a workshop production in New York City in 1994, “Rent” has gone on to have some of the longest and most successful legs in Broadway history. The Puccini-inspired musical, which follows the lives of struggling young artists and musicians living in New York’s Lower East Side, has won both the Tony Award for best musical and the Pulitzer Prize for best drama.

After leaving Broadway in 2008, the show has enjoyed a strong run off-Broadway, including a 2010 production directed by Neil Patrick Harris. As the show makes its way to San Diego, actress Gwen Stewart will reprise her original Broadway role as Mrs. Jefferson, the soloist on “Seasons of Love,” the musical’s central theme song.

SDMT provides an intimate venue in which musical theater can continue to thrive outside the Big Apple. The best part about their production of “Rent”? It won’t take you 525,600 minutes to see.